Experience with intraoperative radiotherapy for breast cancer: the Geneva University Hospital's experience.

Abstract

Background Breast conserving surgery along with adjuvant radiotherapy is effective in terms of local control and survival for earlystage breast cancer (1).External beam radiotherapy (EBRT) following breast conserving surgery has been shown to improve survival by preventing local recurrence,in the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Collaborative Group meta-analysis (2).Standard radiotherapy typically requires numerous fractions over a 3-5 week period and is performed weeks or months after surgery or chemotherapy.Partial breast irradiation (PBI) techniques,including intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT),have been investigated in the last decades (3,4).